Exclusive: The Creators Of “Stoner Cats” On Working With Mila Kunis, The Journey To NFT’s, And Early Inspirations
John Schwarz: Where are you from and how did you get into animation?
CHRIS CARTAGENA I was Born in Ft Lauderdale Florida, but grew up mostly in Brisbane, Australia. After College I moved to Sydney, Australia to join in the digital boom of cinema in the early 2000s. My first significant film job was as a Technical Assistant on Happy Feet; by the end of the show I had expanded into editorial and ran all of the dailies with director George Miller (which became my real film school). After Happy Feet I worked on a film in Vancouver Canada before finally setting up camp in Los Angeles where I graduated to Lead Editor on Free Birds, The Grinch and Space Jam 2, as well as helping out a few other shows along the way.
Ash Brannon: Born and raised back east. I knew I wanted to be an animator at age 12 – was making 8mm animated and live action films in every spare moment. My dad heard about CalArts – a college north of L.A. with a preeminent character animation program, and I was lucky enough to be accepted there straight out of high school.
Sarah Cole I am from St. Louis, Missouri. Growing up in a family of nerds, I thought I was destined to create video games. Turns out I was terrible at coding. I had always created funny videos as a hobby, but it wasn’t until my college roommate suggested I do that for a living. At that point, it was a no-brainer. I took a semester off for an internship at a commercial studio, that ended up hiring me at their LA offices upon my graduation. After a spending year in commercials, the studio started their first animated movie and I jumped on board as soon as I could. It was truly the perfect fusion of my nerd brain (working in computers) and my creative brain (creating content). It was actually at this point that I met Chris and Ash, and we hatched the beginnings of Stoner Cats.
What are some of your favorite animated series either now or from your past that you feel has influenced you in some way, especially with this series?
Chris: The Simpsons did so much for TV animation and the writing has been surprisingly good for so many seasons. South Park really broke the mold and pioneered modern adult animation in many ways, Rick and Morty is complex and quirky as well as more clever than it needed to be. I like shows with substance buried within otherwise easily digestible entertainment. Archer is super fun also.
Ash: “The Simpsons” was the game changer – a cartoon primarily targeting older audiences. That obviously opened the door for so many other series. Another all-time favorite live-action series is “Community” – it drives so far into left field with its narrative styles and gets away with it because the show is grounded with dimensional, relatable characters.
Sarah:I grew up watching Looney Tunes with my dad every Saturday morning. Bugs Bunny was a religion in our household. More contemporary inspirations would be Spongebob Squarepants. It made me laugh as a kid, but as I got older I realized there was a whole new layer of subtle adult comedy. I would say I draw most of my comedic instincts from the genius that is Mel Brooks.
How did the idea of Stoner Cats come about?
Ash: Chris Cartagena’s brainchild. He can elaborate more on how it was born. We threw the idea around as a possible web series but it didn’t go anywhere until a chance run-in in 2019. The market for adult animated series had radically changed over the previous decade, and we decided the time was right to dust off the project and develop it into something bigger.
Chris: Stoner Cats was kind of our answer to what felt like an endless supply of copycat animation projects all competing in TV and Film. Off the successes of Pixar, then early Dreamworks there was a gold rush of animation being launched and the brief always felt the same, formulaic and often derivative. Ash Sarah and I joked around in the BG of a show we were working on around 2009 (that suffered similar somewhat uninspired studio expectations) about this idea of stoned cats, based originally off gifs and videos of Cats on Catnip. There wasn’t really a market for adult animation like there is now, but we thought maybe webisodes or something like. 10 years later we all got together over lunch and joked about what if we actually tried to make it and what it would look like. We started with a broad concept, tone, character backgrounds then got into the story and came up with an early version of what the show became. We pitched the idea around and immediately hit it off with Mila, Lisa and Cammy at Orchard Farm, then continued to develop the show on nights and weekends while doing our day jobs. After a few near misses of getting the show made in a traditional Hollywood setting, we decided in frustration to try to make a short pilot ourselves and then Mila came up with the idea of launching the show as an NFT concept. The rest of the story lives in infamy.
What were some visual inspirations for the look and aesthetics of the series?
Chris: The look and style of the show are very much a bespoke design style from Ash, we were very clear early on to bias charm over complexity. One big thing we talked about early on is how every modern adult animation show looks like one of 2 or 3 of the same visual styles and we didn’t want to fall into those categories. I pulled up a Pixar short called Kitbull and showed it to Ash and Sarah and suggested that we do something visually warmer than the clean lines and bright primary and neon colours that had become the modern trend. We also wanted a traditional 2D animation feel, vs the flash animation style that is more common for logistical reasons.
Ash: I’m a massive fan of the old Warner Bros. shorts from the 1940s-1950s, especially the ones directed by Chuck Jones. His sense of timing, the minimalist production design, and the juxtapositioning of cute/appealing character designs with adult personalities – these were all huge influences on the look of our show.
What has it been like working with Mila Kunis and how did both sides get to collaborating on this project?
Chris: Mila has been a champion for the show since our first meeting, we were introduced to her through Ash’s manager but essentially just shy of 3 strangers off the street with a weird pitch. For 2 years before we even began the NFT journey that created the show as it is now, Mila and Lisa continued to push and champion the show, their notes are always great and they are impossibly good people.
Sarah: Orchard Farm Productions (Lisa Sterbakov, Mila Kunis, & Cami Curtis) has been instrumental in the success of Stoner Cats. Baseline, having a women-led team has been incredibly refreshing, especially in animation. They have been fiercely supportive of our creative vision and preserving the IP. Additionally their strict “No Asshole Policy” has meant no egos infringing on the creative process, which, as Ash said, is why when they DO give notes, they are smart, succinct, and elevate the show.
Ash: Mila and her partner Lisa Sterbakov are the ideal creative producers and partners. My manager put our deck in front of them and made the connection for us. They got our show right away, and their notes have only enriched the show. Case in point: in one episode we gave a character an easy out at one point when he leaves the house on a misadventure. Mila and Lisa asked, “What if he doesn’t get home? Can you make a crisis out of that?” And they were right and we embraced the idea and made a bunch of last minute changes to incorporate it into the episode.
Talk about some of the voice cast you got to bring in and work with, and what were you looking for in the development of your voice cast?
Chris: We had written the characters in isolation of the casting and had some broad ideas but were blown away by the cast we got. Mila unleashed her Hollywood Rolodex and got to work for us; We wanted to create a more meaty role for her as Fefe than people were used to on Family Guy and of course she’s amazing. Jane Fonda as Ms Stoner changed the way we approached that character as well as the show in general, immediately there was a pressure to raise the bar for ourselves and write content worthy of her recording. Ashton got roped in initially by Mila but committed 1000% (and became many people’s fav). Chris Rock is a comedy genius, he’s been so generous with his time and talent. Seth MacFarlane felt like he lent us some credibility in the animation world immediately and took on the task of creating 2 new distinct characters, which is no small feat.
Ash: Mila also served as the show’s de facto casting director. She was able to reach out to every actor in the show. Jane Fonda had previously read our pilot script and signed on even before we went out as an NFT project. As with any project, I look for actors who have a lot of texture in their voices, contrast well against the other voices, and can deliver nuanced emotional performances. I never like to go wacky or cartoony.
Sarah: As Ash stated, we have truly benefited from Mila’s network of talent, but more than anything, every actor who agreed to work on Stoner Cats did it because they believed in the content. On the surface, Stoner Cats sounds zany, but as the show evolves, so do the characters. Acquiring a cast with such talent and breadth of skills brings our characters to life in a way we could have only dreamed. When Jane Fonda signed on, I was beyond ecstatic. Honoring my mom’s Alzheimer’s experience through such an incredible woman and actress has been one of the greatest gifts.
What do you think Stoner Cats can become down the line, is the show envisioned as a series with potentially multiple seasons and are there ideas on where else to take premise or do you see it as strictly an NFT series?
CHRIS: We started creating Stoner Cats as a more traditional animated TV series concept but as we’ve continued to develop it, we’ve gone for a less episodic narrative that lends itself to more longer form storytelling or potentially a feature. Right now the future is unwritten but we’re excited to find the right place and/or format for where we can take the show next as we have no end of ideas with these characters.
Ash: It can take many forms. We have developed deep characters and situations that can carry anything from a feature to a multi-season series. We’ve already worked out the basic spine for three seasons, and hope to venture beyond the NFT world at some point to engage with a larger audience. But we’ll never forget the people in the NFT community who supported the show from day one. We’re working hard to deliver six incredible episodes exclusively for them before we think of doing anything else.
